My mother gave me a very generous gift card for Williams Sonoma for Christmas and so today, Z and I headed to the mall to pick out some loot. My original intent was to replace all of our mismatched and stained kitchen towels and cloths. We had some extra left over, and this is what I got:

• 8 dish towels (3 lemon, 3 light green)
• 8 dish cloths (same colors)
• Silpat baking sheet liner
• Pan for baking French bread
• Two reusable wine sealers (cork replacements)

My new breadmaker (from my brother and his wife) is fabulous! I had tried without success to make whole wheat bread in my old breadmaker but it always turned out heavy and dry. The recipe that came with the new breadmaker involves vital wheat gluten as well as yeast, and boy did my first loaf rise! I will need to reduce the amount of yeast as it hit the window on the top of the machine.

With my new french bread pan, we’ll prepare the dough in the machine and let it do its final rise on the pan before baking.